How Gen X should practice "the art of aging"

NPR health and science correspondent and "Sunday Morning" contributor Allison Aubrey is out with a new book. "Your Turn" is what she calls it – and here she is to explain what she means...

If you're asking what's next in life, you're not alone. For the millions of Gen Xers like me, we've been in the trenches for decades with work and parenting. Now, everything's changing – our relationships, our responsibilities – as our kids begin to launch.

So, if life is lived in three chapters of learn, earn, retire, then it's time for us to start thinking about that third chapter. But I don't like the word retire, because it doesn't describe what this next stretch of life can be

When I was a teenager, I went to the Kentucky Derby. As I watched one horse that was stuck in the back of the pack suddenly make a bold move in the third turn and surge ahead to win the race, the fans loved it. My grandfather told me, "Allison, always watch the third turn. There's something exciting and unexpected that happens here."

"Why?" I asked.

"Well, because when you can see the home stretch," he told me, "a sense of urgency arises."

Ah-ha, there's a midlife metaphor! If not now, then when?

With that in mind, I took a sabbatical from my day job – I called it a "curiosity tour" – and I set out to find people who've made bold third-turn pivots: A nurse who sings lead vocals in a band; a lawyer who opened a bookstore; a shy editor who took up improv in her 60s; a counselor who teaches Shake Your Soul dance. Their stories reframe what's possible.

Research shows the best longevity hacks are not pills or products, but rather a sense of purpose, a sense of play. Creative pursuits, such as dancing, singing, painting, gardening, a love of literature or theatre, they don't just bring us joy; they appear to slow down aging.

A recent study finds engaging with the arts is as powerful as exercise to slow aging.

Of course, exercise and diet matter. But the art of aging invites us to imagine a blank canvas and create something new, like the people I met on my curiosity tour who are revving up, not retiring.

So, if you want to surge ahead in your third turn, rip up that old script of "learn, earn, retire." The new one is "learn, earn, return" – a return to the playful kid within. Listen to your intuition. This is how to find midlife momentum.

It's your turn.

READ AN EXCERPT: "Your Turn: How to Create a Midlife You Love" by Allison Aubrey

     
Story produced by Amol Mhatre. 

     
For more info:

• "Your Turn: How to Create a Midlife You Love" by Allison Aubrey (Avid Reader Press/Simon & Schuster), in Hardcover, eBook and Audio formats, available via Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Bookshop.org

See also: 

• Home, not alone: Helping aging seniors in rural America ("Sunday Morning")
• Ted Danson with 4 tips on aging creatively ("Sunday Morning")
• Living your bucket list ("Sunday Morning")
• Meet the "grandfluencers" ("Sunday Morning")